There are almost 200 online newspapers in Bangladesh but no specific regulations exist for them. The government of Bangladesh has taken steps to fix this by preparing a draft policy, which will be finalized by next month (October 2012). The government is now seeking opinions from people concerning online media on this regulation.

This regulation stipulates that a onetime payment of Bangladeshi Taka 500,000 (USD 6,100) should be deposited with the Ministry of Information to get a license for an online news portal. Each year this license should be renewed by paying 50,000 Taka (USD 610). The license fee can be revised by the government at anytime.

The steep BD Taka 500,000 registration fee for online news portals and its renewal fee of 50,000 Taka is a prelude to the closure of news portals. Where it is easy to get approval for print media, this will create impediments in the registration of online news portals.

How much must an online news portal can earn so that they can afford to pay Taka 500,000? Does this amount validate whatever they do? Why is there no talk of policies regarding maintaining the quality of journalism?

Shahjahan Siraj [bn] thinks that this will dry up the job opportunities the online media industry has created.

If we want progress of the nation, this registration fee should not be more than Taka 5,000 (USD 61). But this may vary up to Taka 10,000 (USD 122) in urban areas. The Ministry of Information should first ensure that bureaucracy does no hinder registration and declaration of new news portals even from the remotest places of the country.

Robayat Ferdous [bn], a teacher in the Department of Journalism and Mass Communication of Dhaka University, said in an interview with the Daily Manabjamin:

The steps the government has taken in implementing the policy is wrong. They should have consulted with the people associated with online media in the country before preparing the draft. But they have asked for consultation after preparation of the draft. And the high fees stipulated for registration and renewal sounds like imposing control.

Amriul Islam [bn], editor of BD24Live.com online portal, questions a recent consultation at the Ministry of Information. He expresses his doubts over the news that representatives from the leading online newspapers were present in that consultation:

It's unbelievable but true that this move by the government is not being covered well by the media. This is crystal clear. The proliferation of online media is hampering the business of print media as they are losing readers, subscribers and advertisement to them. So they do not want online media to prosper.

Mohammad Arzu quotes some of the portions of the draft policy to show how absurd they are:

11. Professional and Technical Quality:

(g) All online news media portals should be hosted in a location inside Bangladesh. The DNSI (Domain Name Server Internet) Protocol should be notified to the Ministry of Information.

(j) No local online portal should link to other local and international news portals.

14. The following program/news should not be published/broadcast:

(b) Any news/program that is violating the main principles of the state and the governance;

(e) Any indecent or provocative satire/music/advertisement/news or any program with subtitles that may pollute, corrupt or hurt peoples’ feeling and morality.

(k) Any news/program that may hurt the feeling of any friendly country.

Considering all these it seems that rather than for regulation, the online media policy exists more for control.

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3 comments

Hasan Pavel

By this time media in Bangladesh is in control of black money. The black power make this sector so much costly that real journalists are not capable to run a media house. Now their last hope online newspaper is going to be blocked in so many rules and regulations. Nation will never know the truth as all will be edited according to some group of peoples need. We are not against any rules but we need to keep them reachable. More details is in here , http://www.primekhobor.com